The Physics Book

703 Pages·2020·134.87 MB·english

by  DK

CONTENTS
HOW TO USE THIS EBOOK
INTRODUCTION
MEASUREMENT AND MOTION • PHYSICS AND THE
EVERYDAY WORLD
Man is the measure of all things • Measuring distance
A prudent question is one half of wisdom • The scientific method
All is number • The language of physics
Bodies suffer no resistance but from the air • Free falling
A new machine for multiplying forces • Pressure
Motion will persist • Momentum
The most wonderful productions of the mechanical arts • Measuring time
All action has a reaction • Laws of motion
The frame of the system of the world • Laws of gravity
Oscillation is everywhere • Harmonic motion
There is no destruction of force • Kinetic energy and potential energy
Energy can be neither created nor destroyed • The conservation of energy
A new treatise on mechanics • Energy and motion
We must look to the heavens for the measure of the Earth • SI units and physical
constants
ENERGY AND MATTER • MATERIALS AND HEAT
The first principles of the universe • Models of matter
As the extension, so the force • Stretching and squeezing
The minute parts of matter are in rapid motion • Fluids
Searching out the fire-secret • Heat and transfers
Elastical power in the air • The gas laws
The energy of the universe is constant • Internal energy and the first law of
thermodynamics
Heat can be a cause of motion • Heat engines
The entropy of the universe tends to a maximum • Entropy and the second law of
thermodynamics
The fluid and its vapor become one • Changes of state and making bonds
Colliding billiard balls in a box • The development of statistical mechanics
Fetching some gold from the sun • Thermal radiation
ELECTRICITY AND MAGNETISM • TWO FORCES UNITE
Wondrous forces • Magnetism
The attraction of electricity • Electric charge
Potential energy becomes palpable motion • Electric potential
A tax on electrical energy • Electric current and resistance
Each metal has a certain power • Making magnets
Electricity in motion • The motor effect
The dominion of magnetic forces • Induction and the generator effect
Light itself is an electromagnetic disturbance • Force fields and Maxwell’s equations
Man will imprison the power of the sun • Generating electricity
A small step in the control of nature • Electronics
Animal electricity • Bioelectricity
A totally unexpected scientific discovery • Storing data
An encyclopedia on the head of a pin • Nanoelectronics
A single pole, either north or south • Magnetic monopoles
SOUND AND LIGHT • THE PROPERTIES OF WAVES
There is geometry in the humming of the strings • Music
Light follows the path of least time • Reflection and refraction
A new visible world • Focusing light
Light is a wave • Lumpy and wavelike light
Light is never known to bend into the shadow • Diffraction and interference
The north and south sides of the ray • Polarization
The trumpeters and the wave train • The Doppler effect and redshift
These mysterious waves we cannot see • Electromagnetic waves
The language of spectra is a true music of the spheres • Light from the atom
Seeing with sound • Piezoelectricity and ultrasound
A large fluctuating echo • Seeing beyond light
THE QUANTUM WORLD • OUR UNCERTAIN UNIVERSE
The energy of light is distributed discontinuously in space • Energy quanta
They do not behave like anything that you have ever seen • Particles and waves
A new idea of reality • Quantum numbers
All is waves • Matrices and waves
The cat is both alive and dead • Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle
Spooky action at a distance • Quantum entanglement
The jewel of physics • Quantum field theory
Collaboration between parallel universes • Quantum applications
NUCLEAR AND PARTICLE PHYSICS • INSIDE THE ATOM
Matter is not infinitely divisible • Atomic theory
A veritable transformation of matter • Nuclear rays
The constitution of matter • The nucleus
The bricks of which atoms are built up • Subatomic particles
Little wisps of cloud • Particles in the cloud chamber
Opposites can explode • Antimatter
In search of atomic glue • The strong force
Dreadful amounts of energy • Nuclear bombs and power
A window on creation • Particle accelerators
The hunt for the quark • The particle zoo and quarks
Identical nuclear particles do not always act alike • Force carriers
Nature is absurd • Quantum electrodynamics
The mystery of the missing neutrinos • Massive neutrinos
I think we have it • The Higgs boson
Where has all the antimatter gone? • Matter–antimatter asymmetry
Stars get born and die • Nuclear fusion in stars
RELATIVITY AND THE UNIVERSE • OUR PLACE IN THE
COSMOS
The windings of the heavenly bodies • The heavens
Earth is not the center of the universe • Models of the universe
No true times or true lengths • From classical to special relativity
The sun as it was about eight minutes ago • The speed of light
Does Oxford stop at this train? • Special relativity
A union of space and time • Curving spacetime
Gravity is equivalent to acceleration • The equivalence principle
Why is the traveling twin younger? • Paradoxes of special relativity
Evolution of the stars and life • Mass and energy
Where spacetime simply ends • Black holes and wormholes
The frontier of the known universe • Discovering other galaxies
The future of the universe • The static or expanding universe
The cosmic egg, exploding at the moment of creation • The Big Bang
Visible matter alone is not enough • Dark matter
An unknown ingredient dominates the universe • Dark energy
Threads in a tapestry • String theory
Ripples in spacetime • Gravitational waves
DIRECTORY
GLOSSARY
CONTRIBUTORS
QUOTATIONS
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
COPYRIGHT
How to use this eBook
Preferred application settings
For the best reading experience, the following application settings are
recommended:
Color theme: White background
Font size: At the smallest point size
Orientation: Landscape (for screen sizes over 9”/23cm), Portrait (for
screen sizes below 9”/23cm)
Scrolling view: [OFF]
Text alignment: Auto-justification [OFF] (if the eBook reader has
this feature)
Auto-hyphenation: [OFF] (if the eBook reader has this feature)
Font style: Publisher default setting [ON] (if the eBook reader has
this feature)
Images: Double tap on the images to see them in full screen and be
able to zoom in on them
FOREWORD
I fell in love with physics as a boy when I discovered that this was the
subject that best provided answers to many of the questions I had about the
world around me—questions like how magnets worked, whether space
went on forever, why rainbows form, and how we know what the inside of
an atom or the inside of a star looks like. I also realized that by studying
physics I could get a better grip on some of the more profound questions
swirling around in my head, such as: What is the nature of time? What is it
like to fall into a black hole? How did the universe begin and how might it
end?
Now, decades later, I have answers to some of my questions, but I
continue to search for answers to new ones. Physics, you see, is a living
subject. Although there are many things we now know with confidence
about the laws of nature, and we have used this knowledge to develop
technologies that have transformed our world, there is still much more we
do not yet know. That is what makes physics, for me, the most exciting
area of knowledge of all. In fact, I sometimes wonder why everyone isn’t
as in love with physics as I am.
But to bring the subject alive—to convey that sense of wonder—requires
much more than collecting together a mountain of dry facts. Explaining
how our world works is about telling stories; it is about acknowledging
how we have come to know what we know about the universe, and it is
about sharing in the joy of discovery made by the many great scientists
who first unlocked nature’s secrets. How we have come to our current
understanding of physics can be as important and as joyful as the
knowledge itself.
This is why I have always had a fascination with the history of physics. I
often think it a shame that we are not taught at school about how concepts